E-Tools Newsletter | March 2013

Welcome to our March E-Tools Newsletter! This monthly TCC field report also includes helpful outreach resources to encourage and equip you to more faithfully share the Gospel with all the loved ones in your life as we witness for Christ in Canada together.

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AN “EXTREMELY” GOOD FRIDAY

TCC Extreme Team | Good Friday 2013

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This month the Lord blessed The Cross Current local missions team with an “extremely” Good Friday for witnessing.

On Friday, March 29th TCC was privileged to lead an Extreme Team Mission of more than 30 evangelists from 3 different churches to an intense experience of high volume seed sowing through passing tracts, witnessing one-to-one, and preaching the Gospel open air.

Extreme Team Testimonies

We trust that you and your church will be encouraged by the faithful testimonies of two new Extreme Team missionaries:

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Eddie Jantzi shares:

I had a great privilege to go out to the streets in London, Ontario on Good Friday with The Cross Current and the other churches.

It was a beautiful day to be out on the streets sharing the Gospel with a number of people out enjoying the long weekend. One of the interesting things I noticed was that the majority of people didn’t really know what the statutory holiday was originally about.

Watching all the people walk up and down the streets really made me realize that I didn’t deserve hear the gospel more than anyone else, yet God in His sovereign plan opened my eyes to the truth. It also became very real to me that the least I can do for these people is to share with them what has been given to me – the Good News of what Christ did for us on the cross.

I noticed a well-dressed young guy sitting and listening to us preach open air at the corner of Victoria Park in downtown London. As I walked up to him, he asked if we were protesting something. I told him we actually out here sharing the Good News of Good Friday and asked him if he knew what that was? He said he did, but he was a Muslim so he didn’t agree with it.

Right: Chris Wood (R) and Jeremy Joseph of Harvest London stand together for Christ

I felt quite unprepared to challenge a professing Muslim, and I could tell that he was quite well educated. However, I could also hear by the tone of his voice when he had asked me the question first that seemed to be quite reasonable.

I breathed a prayer to God that he would grant me wisdom, and I asked the man if he believed in a heaven or a hell. He said he did, but only their “god” knew where he would go based on how much good he did. So I asked if he thinks he did enough good to go to heaven? He wasn’t sure yet if he did enough good to out way his bad past. I then shared what the Bible actually says: “We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”.

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I went on to share what Good Friday is all about. Christ, living the perfect life that we as man could never live, took our sins upon Himself by dying on the cross and all we need to do is repent and put our faith in Him for the full forgiveness of our sins. That gives me the full assurance of going to heaven for eternity and that’s the result of the Good News that we are preaching today.

He asked: “You think Jesus is a free ticket to heaven?” I said: “Yes, if you believe that Jesus paid it all for you.” He felt the Bible is wrong about that and believed the Qur’an was more accurate than the Bible. Thanks to my Christian brother, Sye (Ten Bruggencate of Absolute Apologetics) who came to my rescue armed with a copy of the Qur’an to prove it’s fallacies!

Right: Sye Ten Bruggencate advances and defends the Gospel with a couple in downtown London

Long story short, the Muslim man didn’t want to accept it, but I know that the seed of the Gospel was planted and hopefully someday he will come to realize that of his own strength there will never be fulfillment.

I pray that God’s work will keep flourishing through The Cross Current in Ontario, throughout North America, and even to the ends of the earth!

–Andrew Johnston writes:

The Good Friday outreach only showed me further how lost some people are. Some people believe they know the Easter story, but don’t fully understand all that was accomplished through the cross and resurrection. Jesus plus something equals nothing, but Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

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The sufficiency of Christ is not apparent to everyone, even people who believe they understand all of what Jesus did for us. Every time I talk to people it becomes even clearer to me that people need a pure and biblical Gospel.

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The Gospel alone is the power of God for salvation, and even people who believe they know it need to hear it. All we can do is speak the amazing truth and let God do the work.

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We pray that God will grow the seeds that we have sown in the minds of people we met. We ask the Holy Spirit to change hearts, that they will come to realize the sufficiency of Christ!

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Praying that the Gospel outreach in London will continue to be as awesome as it is!

Watch “Cross-cultural” open air preaching with Jeff and Claudia (Right)

At TCC we believe that because Christ was publicly put to shame and crucified, all of His faithful followers should be willing to publicly preach His precious Gospel…on Good Friday, and every day that God gives us life.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ~ Isaiah 53:6

The Harvest London Easter Gospel Outreach “GO” Team

On Sunday March 24th, several leaders from The Cross Current partnered with the Easter Gospel Outreach “GO” Team of 20+ seed sowers from Harvest Bible Chapel London to “go” together in search of Christ’s lost sheep gone astray.

Here are a couple Gospel “glory stories” from this mission for which we trust you will thank God:

–Spread the Word!

As I have been attending Harvest, I have delved deeper into the Word than ever before and as such a passion to share the Gospel has stirred in my heart. I chose to go out for the Good Friday outreach because I knew Easter comes only once a year, and it is one of the few times of the year when people seem to be more open to the Gospel.

Going out that Sunday was amazing I met many people on the streets of London, each with their own take on what Easter was about. God gave me the opportunity to share the truth with these people and show them the true good news of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Every time I go out it hits me extremely hard at the number of people who are lost in London. My walk with God strengthens every time I go out with the GO teams; I find my love for Him grows stronger and deeper as I seek and rely on Him to give me right words to say when I meet a person on the streets.

My hope and prayer is that it will be God’s words, not mine, when I share the Gospel. My prayer as a believer is that God will use me according to His purpose as I seek His will in everything that I do!

I really encourage those who have never gone out with a GO team to seriously consider it. It is truly amazing the way God works in your life when you step out in faith to spread His Word!

~ Lauren

Lauren Enwright is a second year student studying at Western University. She has been attending Harvest London with her family since the Fall of 2011 and has recently begun serving as a GO Team member.

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Evangelize…or fossilize.

Though I am very thankful that the Lord allowed me to share the message of the cross with many people that day, my most memorable conversation was with a young man named Joey.

Right: Harvest Bible Chapel GO Team member Nick Platt (Middle) shares the Gospel with a passerby in downtown London

My GO Teammate Joe Carter and I approached this hooded young man who was walking briskly with his head down. I reached out my hand and offered him an Easter Tract, saying: “Did you get one of these?” “No” he replied, “What is it?”

“Well…we’re out here today talking with people about the TRUE meaning of Easter. Do you celebrate Easter?” He said he did. “Well, next Friday we all get a day off to celebrate a holiday called Good Friday. Any idea where that holiday originates?” He knew that it had to do with the death of Jesus. “OK, well…do you know what makes “Good Friday” so “good” then?” Silence.

Left: Art VanderMeulen shares the Gospel with a passerby at the Harvest Easter GO Team event

As the conversation about death and the afterlife began to unfold, Joey initially shared some strange scientific explanation for the “spiritual” experiences people have reported at the point of death: “It’s just another form of brain activity.” However, as is often the case, when I began to share with him the truth of what God says about eternity, his wishful faith in pseudo science was soon forgotten.

For the next 25 minutes, God made his appeal through me to Joey concerning His holiness…our sinfulness…and how only the cross of Christ can reconcile our Creator’s justice and mercy. “So what makes Good Friday so good, Joey, is the fact that: “For our sake he (God the Father) made him (God the Son) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”!”

I continued to press and press this young man about the consequences of rejecting the Savior and called him to repent of his sin and put his faith in Christ. I then extended a church invited and thanked Joey for his kindness and openness to talk to us. “That makes sense” Joey said.

Just before we shook hands and said goodbye, I posed to Joey a few more key questions that we often ask strangers on the street.

“Joey…you weren’t offended by our conversation, were you?” “Not at all”, he said. “Have you heard that message before?” I asked. “Certainly not like that” he replied.

The final words we exchanged were shocking.

“And you’re from London?” I asked. “Yes” he said. “I work as a custodian in [a Christian ministry right over there].” (Note: the “Christian ministry” he named was actually founded by a Gospel preaching powerhouse from the 1800’s. However, it is now known as little more than a well-meaning humanitarian project).

We thanked Joey for his time, as Joe and I walked away saddened by the state of Gospel amnesia in the modern church.

It was Canadian pastor and missions pioneer, Oswald J. Smith who said: “The church that does not evangelize will fossilize.”

By God’s grace, the evangelistic blood runs hot through the veins of Christ’s Body here at Harvest London! Let’s thank Him for the Gospel-centered leaders that He has placed us under, and let’s pray diligently that He continues to stir more and more hearts to “go” for His glory in the city of London!

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Are you ready to be Christ’s witnesses to your loved ones and community like never before? As the following testimonial video confirms, The Cross Current (TCC) specializes in equipping evangelists and their churches to more faithfully preach the Gospel to the lost in all areas of life.

Over the course of just one day, The Cross Current Witnessing Workshop will equip you by example to “normalize” sharing the Gospel in all your personal and community relationship. Here are the event details:

Let’s continue partnering together to keep our prayer pulse for TCC and the Church in Canada strong!

There are four specific petitions that we humbly request that you, your family, and your church continue lifting up to the Lord on our behalf related to our ministry calendar in April and throughout the rest of the year:

> Witnessing Workshop

As helping churches “normalize” sharing the Gospel with lost loved ones is a top priority for our ministry to pastors, please pray for the overall fruitfulness of our upcoming Witnessing Workshop in Chatham, Ontario at the end of April.

> Church Champions Training Retreats

As equipping evangelists within local churches is the heartbeat of The Cross Current, please pray that the Lord will help us with all logistics related to this year’s Church Champions Training Retreat(s), and for the overall fruitfulness of each training time together.

> Rep & Radio expansion

As outreach radio expansion will be one of our major objectives for 2013, please pray that the Lord helps us equip and release more TCC radio representatives from solid partner churches, and that many radio executives and stations will begin broadcasting our program.

> Financial Support

Canada needs Christ! Please pray that God will speak to the hearts of more and more supporters who will give generously and cheerfully to our work of equipping by example pastors, Christians, and their churches to share the Gospel in Canada.